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A Mistake Incomplete is a noir crime inspired novel set in modern day Milan, Italy. Taking the suspense and thrill of noir and placing it the bustling cosmopolitan city of Milan. An incompetent thief makes another attempt at burglary. A hopeless bartender struggles to manage her last patron. The pair reluctantly work together to figure out why a man they presumed dead may have returned, while a lonely tourist inadvertently gets in the way. Visit amistakeincomplete.com for more details and links to bookshops.
Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I don’t know about you, but to quote Luvvie Ajayi, I miss precedented times. Or if someone in the sky is taking orders for the types of unprecedented times we’d like to see next, I’d really prefer an elimination of the gender pay gap, reparations, an efficient vaccine rollout, a foolproof solution for adult acne… I have more ideas for the suggestion box if anyone needs ’em!
Let’s take a moment for ourselves to talk about books, shall we? To the club!!
Nibbles and Sips
A thing I actually said out loud last week while peering at the contents of my fridge: “What dish pairs best with news of an attempted coup?” I don’t know, but I can vouch for this snack hack I saw on TikTok when I gave up on cooking and ordered takeout instead.
Now listen: this seems like a thing we should have all figured out a long time ago. Perhaps some of you did! Go with me here anyway because it is rather delightful in its simplicity. Use a knife or kitchen scissors to make one slit in a wrap or tortilla from its center to the edge (me, an intellectual: a radius slit), then place a different topping/ingredient in each of the four quarters of the wrap. To finish it off, fold the quarters over one another (see the video in the link I provided above) and then toast it off in a panini press or a preheated pan. Here are some of the combos I’ve now tried successfully:
- fig jam, brie, applies, arugula
- spinach, shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, cheese
- tomato, hummus, spinach & feta, grilled chicken
- salami, mozzarella, arugula, pesto
- avocado, bacon, spinach, tomato
Have Y’all…. Read Orwell?
If you’ve been online at all this week, you’re likely painfully aware of two facts: most people’s grasp of the First Amendment is shaky at best, and the Venn diagram of people who call a thing Orwellian and those who’ve actually read and understand Orwell is two circles that do not touch. Whew. Orwell’s books (including the oft incorrectly cited 1984) were a warning on the dangers of totalitarian rule—the guy even went to Spain to fight in the Civil War against fascists!
That brings me to today’s book club suggestions. As a lot of my very smart internet book friends pointed out in the past couple of days (and years), there is another writer who’s work we should be talking about right now, one whose books aren’t just eerily prescient, but terrifyingly so. I’m breaking a little with my regular format and highlighting just these two books; I’m challenging you all to read them in book club and discuss what we’ll just call the fascism playbook. Without further ado, I bring you Octava E. Butler’s Earthseed series.
Parable of the Sower
It’s the 2020s (yeah, you read that right) and climate change has made basic resources scarce (gulp), and most find themselves at the mercy of the few corporations who have jobs and money to offer (well that’s just great!). Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives in Los Angeles inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors where they’re all sheltered from the goings on of the outside world—for a while. As the anarchy grows and her world falls apart, Lauren struggles to make her voice heard while trying to protect her loved ones the imminent doom her small, insular community stubbornly insists on ignoring (screams in relatable dread). Making matters more complicated: she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to other people’s emotions.
Parable of the Talents
Full disclosure: I have not read these books myself and will remedy that this year. I bring this up in order to tell you that my eyes went the size of quarters when I learned that this second book takes place after the election of—wait for it—an ultra-conservative president who vows to “make America great again.” I’m sorry… make America QUE?!?! It’s now 2032 and Lauren is living in and leading Acorn, her vision of a peaceful community in northern California that lives by the Earthseed faith. This subversive community provides refuge for those persecuted in the wake of the election and is led by a Black woman, so… you know what that means: the prezzy and his MAGA folk put a target on her back.
Suggestion Section
The DC Public Library has launched the Love in Color Book Club featuring romance by authors of color. Love this!
Does your book club love some Sally Rooney? Mark your calendars, her third novel is coming!
Lily Marotta and Steven Phillips-Horst are launching a podcast called Celebrity Book Club on January 13. In each episode, the pair will read celebrity memoirs then come together to discuss “the juicy—and often unhinged—details.” (Side note that made me chuckle: Phillips-Hort’s name on Twitter is “cancela lansbury.”)
The Mary Sue Book Club’s January theme: Goddesses, Romcoms, and Dazzling Space Operas
Read with Jenna’s January book club pick is super high on my TBR.
Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa